I live in a city where there aren't a ton of foreigners, but also aren't few, so I always have this awkward moment where I have to decide whether I should say hello and introduce myself or not. And I do actually wonder if they can speak Chinese, how long they've been here, what they're doing, what they're making... Same damn questions I get every day from every cab driver and person at the gym.

Yeah I remember the first time I caught myself doing that. "I wonder where he's from?" LOL, what is he doing in China? And then it struck me that I was a foreigner too so I could just go up and ask him. I didn't though because I really didn't give a shit, but the thought process still occurred.

When I left China, I had to relearn how to stand in a queue. I wasn't queue jumping, but I was leaving millimeters of space between me and the next person in line to prevent random people from pushing though, despite the fact that I was in places where this wasn't a problem and where social norms regarding a "bubble of space" applies.

Shit, tell me about it. I only smoked on rare social occasions back in the states but developed a three-packs a week habit when I moved here. I've been tobacco-free for seven months now and every day I still crave a smoke.

You're on the precipice, hang in there. Used to have a pack a day habit but have been smoke free for 10 years now. I remember getting the cravings pretty bad for about 8 months... thinking, f it, I'd rather get lung cancer then deal with this shit the rest of my life.

After about 8 months they stop being a big deal. I think I still got them off and on for about 2 years, but they were minor and few and far in between. I never get them now.... feels awesome.

I'm actually much less hateful toward other people on the road here, because I don't assume they should know what they're doing, whereas if I'm in the states I hold everyone on the road to a higher standard.

The street crossing! Having hosted friends and family here, I always forget that I'm basically a Frogger expert and I end up leaving people on the other side of the street looking anxious when I expected them to follow me.

Meh... in montreal no one ever waits for the lights/crosses the street anywhere anyway... so I didn't even know this was not normal. (Until I went Calgary and people looked at me like I had a death wish... I mean the roads are so wide and straight there, you can clearly see that there are no cars that will hit you... but I digress)

I'm actually a bit worried going back home on this subject. Here the drivers constantly expect idiot behaviour so they generally adjust the speed and attention. Back home no one expects you to cross the road just like that so they go 80 without a second thought. I have to be pretty damned careful not just running into traffic by then.

I visited China for less than two weeks and my boyfriend had to save me from getting hit by a car the first street we crossed back in the States. My brain figured there was no way a car could be going over 5mph on a two lane road in the middle of a city.

I assume they're intended to make it tougher to be drunk in public, which is also a ticketable offense. Important to note is that these are state laws, not federal, so there are a handful of places in the US where these laws don't exist.

In comparison to many other western nations, the US has a stick up its butt in general when it comes to mind-altering substances.

I used to work security at some bars in Sydney Australia that were located on street corners. They had several doors facing the street and patrons liked to hop from one part of the pub to another by using the sidewalk. Both my bosses told me that patrons weren't allowed to do that with open bottles or glasses.

I suspect the real problem there is that the terms of their license dictate that all drinks must be consumed on premises, which obviously excludes going outside. I might be wrong but I've seen plenty of people drinking outside in Australia.

Happened to me too. I bought something from 7/11, opened it, and then I realized everyone was giving me strange looks. It sucked. My fear of being arrested/looking like an alcoholic overpowered my desire for a cheap, good-tasting beer.

Then when I was recently in New Orleans I didn't have to worry about anything. 'Twas magical.

Oh man I've gotten in trouble with my (American) friends so much since coming back to America for equating speaking English to being able to say whatever the fuck I want no matter how many people are around me.

Living in a 3rd tier city you just get used to the fact that if you speak in English at a normal pace nobody is going to be able to understand you. While I was home for the holidays one year I was at the mall with my sister buying presents, and doing some good old fashioned people watching. I had forgotten how large American people can get and when one man walked by I said to my sister " Look at this fat fuck!". Lessons were learned quickly.

Going into every new store that I come across and doing an up and down the aisle mental inventory of what few western food items they carry for later reference.

Milk - check

Cheese - white slices only check

sliced bread - check

peanut butter - no

jam - check

some form of meat product that I can recognize and trust - no

imported canned anything - Malaysian tuna, NZ baked beans - check

Spaghetti sauce - no

spaghetti noodles - check

etc.

The result of this is when I go shopping I may visit three or four different stores to complete a two bag short list, but at least I know where to find things. You Shanghai guys probably don't even know what I'm going on about which is why I hate you.

I like the garbage cans that have a "recycling" and "non-recycling" section, but are actually the same can. Way to go!

Even if you did want to recycle, you'd have no way to do it here. I used to package my bottles up in one bag so the "bottle people" who collect them would have an easy way to sort them out, but I don't quite understand what methods they use to choose what to take and what to leave, so I even gave up on that.

When eating noodles or spaghetti, I shovel it into the black hole of my mouth like pro nongmin. I accidentally did this around my ma and she just sat there in shocked disbelief for the rest of the meal.

/u/riceagain's comment (at the top at the time of posting) about drinking to fill in time.

Trying to negotiate even when rigid Western policies have clearly not allowed me to do something. (This is not always a bad habit, though.)

I also want to slow down at every intersection when I'm driving for the first couple hours every time I drive in a country with civilized driving, until I return to feeling comfortable that nobody's gonna be blowing through the lights.

Spending too much more time online. Table manners (not too bad, but I'd definitely get looks of disapproval back home). Traffic, the combination of being ultra defensive and hyper aggressive at times annoys me to no end. Having to find the right balance between sucking up to and administering thinly veiled threats to get anything done. Smoking (almost) everywhere. Caring much less about my fellow man these days. Trying to bend every rules as much as I can, mainly because the rules are so stupid.

Come to think of it, I'll probably need a loooong period of adjustment when I decide to return.

I thought it was strange at first but so many fast food places i cant even find the trash can so i just gave up and let the worker do it. They dont put the trash can near the door like in the states where you can toss shit out while walking out the door they put it near the counter where all the workers are because they know the workers are the ones going to be using the trash can not the customers

Pushing past people. In China no one cares but you push past one old lady in a wheelchair to get on an elevator in Denver and you get some seriously icy stares. It's hard to explain how living in China has just conditioned me to move so fast that by the time I thought,
"Hmmm, I should let that old crippled woman go first," I was already on the elevator pushing the door closed button.

You should have seen him 'round these parts a year ago.... holy shit. He's Mr. Fucking Congeniality these days. Well.... compared to back then, not compared to civilized people... i mean fa.... sorry wrong /r/

you should realize that it is illegal for a chinese girl to have a baby outside of marriage. She will actually be visited by government official and told she has to pay a fine if she refuses to have an abortion. Many public hospitals will even refuse to see her because she is having an illegal pregnancy. The system is ridiculous and no chinese will go through with having a baby outside of marriage. They may say they will just to get you to marry them but if you really refuse as soon as they go to the hospital and realize the hospital will refuse to let her see the doctor she will reconsider things. But the real reason why you should wear a condom is that chinese guys fuck tons of hookers and then fuck their mistresses and then dump them which is usually when the laowai come in and that is how you get nasty diseases

So I hear... a friend at another school got bitten by a local girl with great... tracts of land! He didn't learn until much later that she'd already been thru every other laowai in town. A few weeks later she was "with squirrel" and so they got married. A year after the kid was born, a pretty American girl joins the school. As soon as the wife sees the new female laowai, she gets it in her head that her husband is cheating with the new teacher and goes nutso. Physical assault, getting her family to assist with assaults, invading the campus balabala...

Smoking, Talking to random chinese people (stateside I had to curb my impulse to strike up a conversation), throwing everything on the ground from trash to spit, hating on other foreigners just for being in china, hating on pseudo rich chinese kids in the states knowing that if they were really rich in their country they wouldn't be driving an audi they would be driving a lambo here, last but not least is I constantly have a habit of going back to china.

I had to relearn my table manners. I realized that I started to 'go native' when foreign business owners and the ragged-pants 'English teachers' were invited to a banquet for National day (or whatever it's called), I got sat at a table with American and Russian nationals, with a few Chinese translators. I started to go to town on my sliced pigs ears and noticed that I was hunched over with my elbows on the table, shoveling the food into my mouth. I enjoy eating like that, though. Eating with gusto.

Then when I got back to the US I found myself staring at Asian people at the grocery store, wondering what they were buying and looking into their basket. Then I remembered how annoyed I was when Chinese would do that to me at the supermarket. It's just curiosity.

I came to China pretty young and molded into Chinese culture pretty damn quick so whenever I visit a Western city for a holiday or a business trip I inevitably get cursed out for not thanking anyone for letting me have the right of way or I jump onto the tube before anyone has gotten off.